Bright blue, sewing and fireworks

Jimmy and I were originally planning on going to Great Bend for the Calcara family come back of Fat Hog to meet Vanessa and Chris who were there for the holiday weekend.  And at the last minute...we decided not to go, which I felt horrible about pretty much all weekend.  But after about 45 minutes straight of me telling Jimmy that, he pretty much threatened that he wasn't going to talk to me the rest of the weekend if I didn't stop.  So I did, continued to get sad when cute facebook pictures were going up, but since I wanted to talk to Jimmy - I manned up to the decision we made and went with the weekend to get as much accomplished that I possibly could in one weekend.  And boy, I did.  We both did.  Here's a little bit about what I did.  

I made a HUGE mess in the guest room.  With that little sewing machine.  I re-taught myself how to sew.  Which was...well interesting, but luckily successful.  On Monday morning, I woke up early because I couldn't sleep, as I was thinking about how exactly I was going to finish my project.

But let me start at the beginning.  Remember this picture for this post??

See the differences?? (It's like nudie photo hunt...but not nude women and not that many differences!)

Well (1) the bench and shelf are no more.  That's not true - really just "relocated and revamped".  More on that later...and...(2) is yep, the BLUE hallway.  I finished painting it this weekend.  Wahoo!  The blue is completely out of my comfort zone.  Like completely.  I live for neutrals, beige, browns, blacks, white.  Just ask my co-workers.  I own hardly any colored clothing.  Which completely translates to our house colors.  So I forced myself to do it.  From the blue pillow colors on our couch and the rug color....I went with it.  And I love the results.

I did it.  Painted it.  Loved it.  Finished.  Eh, not so much.  Then I was like "now what do I do with this blue hallway and huge red beam in my family room?".  So I started the hunt for some fabric that I loved to tie it all together.  And guess what?  I found it, but it was EXPENSIVE.  Like $44/yard expensive.  So I waited (patience is not my other strength) until this weekend for JoAnns 50% off home decor fabrics AND a 15% off total purchase coupon.  So BOOM - about $19/yard makes it still expensive, but more affordable.  So I bit the bullet and bought it.  There was only a little over 3 yards, so I wanted to make the best of that yardage.

To maximize the expensive main print to get the most use, I bought some supplemental fabrics that were cheap, cheap, cheap but gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous and went perfect with the main print.  The red fabric and green fabric with a little checkers on it.  My plans were:

(1) Recover the bench that was in the family room (and just white) and put it in the hallway.
(2) Make some pillows
(3) Make a valance to go in the family room and keep the red panels underneath with the main print
(4) With my other creation, the console table, use it with the baskets I put in there

Honestly, I thought it was going to be a lot easier to jump right back in to sewing.  I had some high hopes.  And honestly, it was a lot harder than I thought.  I started on Sunday morning...and it started off well with measuring and cutting.  But then I couldn't figure out how to reserve on the sewing machine.  Strike one!!  I had to wait until my mom came over to help me figure it out.  Then it was "intermission" while we had a little BBQ with some delicious smoked meat courtesy of Jimmy and Bobby!

So Monday morning, as I mentioned, I woke up bright and early, determined to finish it that day.  I wasn't about ready to miss out on a fun weekend to get nothing accomplished.  And it didn't start off good.  I messed up and had to take out the stitching TWICE because I sewed the wrong sides together STRIKE TWO.  So I got up, went to Starbucks and Einstein Brothers for some caffeine and get Jimmy some breakfast as he was fast asleep.  I brought it home, sat on the patio to enjoy the beautiful KS weather and finished my book.  Then I was at it again.  Got almost done...and then we had to go to my grandmother's for lunch.  Got home and realized I was going to use buttons, but had no idea how to make a button hole and not have the sides fringe.  I watched you tube videos, googled my sewing machine...and I'm sure there is a way, but I went with what I knew after no luck and a grocery store trip and making dinner in between.  I just cut small holes with a carpet cutter.  Sewed the buttons and and DONE.  Couldn't be happier.  At least one of the projects is done:

(1) Recover the bench that was in the family room (and just white) and put it in the hallway

(2) Make some pillows

(3) Make a valance to go in the family room and keep the red panels underneath with the main print

(4) With my other creation, the console table, use it with the baskets I put in there

What do you think?

Tried to get a picture of the buttons, but they are red.  They look fine.  Just don't take a close look.  Oh, and there is the tile that Jimmy as going to put down this weekend - but my dad was very upset because apparently he wants to put it down after his finger "heals" (did I mention he drilled a hole through his finger with a drill bit last week helping my sister with something??) because he has great ideas.  Haha.  He was out of town this weekend and when I told him Jimmy was just going to do it, he got really sad.  So Jimmy took one for the team and didn't tile this weekend.  Hmmm....not sure how that worked out?!

The other projects I worked on?  Using Ana White's amazing blog and built some furniture!  AHHH!!!  It was amazing.  I am already planning my next projects.  More to come on the projects I did this weekend and just how easy and wonderful they were :)  So excited about this!!

OH - and I learned to use a saw and cut some WOOD.  With the safety glasses.  It was awesome!

But in the mean time, I will leave you with this gorgeous picture of Kansas City last night on top of the Liberty Lofts.  So pretty and what a perfect night it was!!!  The weather was gorgeous!  We tried to go to Pat Green, but didn't make it in time.  So sad.

But we did get to see some fireworks!!  And listen to some wonderful music by the KC Symphony honoring those that have gone before us in many different ways, but in particular those that serve our country and died protecting our freedom.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and took some time to relax and rejuvenate :)  Here's to a 4 day work week!!